Daily migration of crows

[jaspercat]

I live between Alton and Alresford in North East Hampshire and am bemused about the thousands of crows that fly from East to West every day, rain or shine.
They pass my house just after dawn and return just before nightfall as regular as clockwork.
I reckon that they must roost in the Farnham area, only because I see them about 15/30 minutes after sun rise. I would be very grateful if someone can confirm this or correct me and also suggest where they are going and for what purpose?

Alfred Hitchcock still lives!

[Tursiops2]

Hi jaspercat, welcome to the forum.
Your crows are probably rooks, moving to and from their roosting site.
T2

[Paul mabbott]

This is quite common but there doesn't seem to be consistency about where they spend their days and where they spend their nights. We have large numbers of rooks and jackdaws which come overhead in the morning heading into urban Sheffield while at night they return to our woods or some of the very outer suburban areas.

Other people will doubtless tell you that they observe crows flying from roosts in the centre of town out to forage in farmland.

Probably it's just a matter of what is available for them - they can only roost where there are trees and they can only feed where there's food!

Welcome.

[Dan Salter]

You need to read the new book "Crow Country" by Mark Cocker.

Crow Country by Mark Cocker from The Good Book Guide, online bookseller.

[epops]

we get the same thing here loads of rooks and jackdaws fly over in the morning then back again at night to a small wood about 5 mins walk away from our house can be a bit noisey in there at times lol

[Adam Cheeseman]

We have about 3,000 Jackdaws and Carrion Crows do the same thing at Bedfont Lakes every day during the winter. They come to a pre-roost feed-up in the fields and then move into the woods to roost. Quite impressive when you happen to be in the wood when they arrive and start wheeling around.

Cheers,

Adam

[Paul mabbott]

... best if you wear a hat?

One of our tribes (there seem to be three or four different groups taking slightly different flight-paths) used to roost in some old sycamores at the end of domestic gardens in Totley (the outermost southern suburb of Sheffield) in preference to other trees in parks or woods nearby.

Sadly the residents objected to this and chopped the trees down ....

Originally Posted by Adam Cheeseman

We have about 3,000 Jackdaws and Carrion Crows do the same thing at Bedfont Lakes every day during the winter. They come to a pre-roost feed-up in the fields and then move into the woods to roost. Quite impressive when you happen to be in the wood when they arrive and start wheeling around.

Cheers,

Adam

[Shewie]

I happened to setup camp in a small area of woodland a couple of months ago and couldn`t get over the number crows which came in to roost at nightfall. I wasn`t even aware it was one of their haunts and I must have been through there a hundred times before. It was amazing to see them coming in one after another for around twenty minutes, there must have been a couple of hundred of them by the time they finished.



Rich

[nightshade]

I have watched these flights for years,they start to move from the first glimpse of light on the horizon.I have taken compass bearings and tried to drive along their course to see if I could spot any of these birds.
Many are Crows that fly furthest, Rooks remaining fairly local to farmland near to their roosts but again in the wonderful world of nature there are always exceptions especially now with farming tecniques changing and land disappearing under concrete
There are two Magpies in my garden along with Jackdaws a pair of Crows
(they have nested locally for years,distinctive white feathers in their wings)
and a single Rook, the draw is food a degree of security and a pond to bathe in

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

You need to read the new book "Crow Country" by Mark Cocker.

Crow Country by Mark Cocker from The Good Book Guide, online bookseller.

I can strongly recommend this book (though it was in the bag that got stolen so I didn't get to read the end) It is fascinating... all about the roosting behaviours of rooks and jackdaws of how they change roost sites between the breeding and winter seasons but how both roosting areas may have been the same for hundreds of years.

Written by Mark Cocker who was so curious to see these flights of rooks over the house that he tracked down most of the local populations and re-visited studies conducted by others all over the country.

brilliant birds....